Well it’s not the fairy tale we were hoping, Rodgers said. As I lay in that surgery bed eight weeks ago thinking about this moment, I was hoping it would go a little differently. I’m proud of our guys for the way they have played the last few weeks.

They did play well. Backup quarterback Brett Hundley did his best in back-to-back overtime victories to give Rodgers a shot, and Rodgers still has a fantastic group of skill position players with Davante Adams next in line to get paid.

Rodgers is right about one thing. Green Bay will always be in the mix as long as he’s the quarterback, and they’ll always be mentioned among NFC contenders. That’s the power of having 1A-1B at QB. Sunday’s loss, however, means the organization can no longer hide behind playoff appearances to confront the problems keeping them away from the Super Bowl.

Rodgers deserves more. Change is coming, or at least it should be coming.

Your eyes, and the advanced numbers, aren’t lying to you- he is playing poorly. But how much of that is connected to missing important minutes early in the year? We will never know, but past performance suggests it played a role.

Then, there is Ben McLemore. Where JaMychal has had better days, McLemore really hasn’t. He has never posted a net rating better than -8 (he is currently at -14, and that, and this is true, is better than the past two seasons.) He has never posted a PER better than 10.4 (9.1 currently), or a win shares per 48 minutes better than .045 (.02 as of January 8th). One area where he is struggling compared to previous seasons is his three point shooting- he is a 35% shooter from beyond the arc for his career and is, right now, shooting 31.2% from range. Perhaps you chalk that up to the injury and missing camp…and the same could perhaps be said for concepts and a lack of understanding scheme.

But you also can see that, even with McLemore missing camp and never being part of a stable organization, it is possible to say he just isn’t very good, and a big swing and a miss on a contract. They needed to sign Green. They didn’t need McLemore, and his contract is the biggest mistake this front office made this past offseason.

This was the latest twist in a tumultuous offseason that had questions swirling around the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After three straight trips to the NBA Finals and a championship for the ages in 2016, the Cavs suddenly appeared to be an organization in disarray.

At the center of it all was the Cavs’ newly minted general manager, Altman, a Brooklyn native who grew up blocks from where the Barclays Center now stands, with dreams of being an NBA general manager.

But Altman didn’t have the pedigree that most NBA GMs possess. He was a middle-of-the road three-year starter at point guard at Division III Middlebury College, and had a stint in corporate real estate out of school before getting back into basketball. Altman had only five years of front-office experience when he was suddenly catapulted to the top spot on the Cavs to run a roster that currently has several players — Jose Calderon, Kyle Korver and Dwyane Wade — older than he is.

And now that he had achieved his goal and the gig was his, all Altman had to do was make sure whatever decisions he made didn’t go wrong and potentially help push the greatest player in team history, and one of the greatest in the history of the sport, LeBron James, out the door when he can opt into free agency next summer.

Isaiah Thomas did not play in the Cavaliers’ first matchup against the Celtics in Boston. So when the Celtics had a video tribute prepared for him on Jan. 3, he requested they hold it until he was active and on the court.

Boston’s GM Danny Ainge confirmed on the Toucher and Rich show that the Celtics have indeed pushed Thomas’s tribute back to Feb. 11, the next and final time Cleveland will play at The TD Garden during the regular season.

There’s just one small problem: that’s the same night Celtics legend Paul Pierce will watch his jersey retire, and the truth is The Truth doesn’t want to see any IT4 highlights on his special day.

Isaiah Thomas is set to make his Cavaliers debut Tuesday night, after recovering from a hip injury. He will not play in the Cavs game the following night though, against the team that traded him, in Boston.

That’s why he’s requested the team not play his tribute video, according to the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy. On Twitter, Thomas explained that he wanted his family at the arena when the video plays.

The team will play the video sometime in the future, and that probably means Feb. 11, which is the only other regular season game the Cavs play in Boston.

The Cavaliers have lost four straight road games, tied for their longest streak since LeBron James returned to Cleveland.

There’s no better time for the long-awaited Cavs debut of Isaiah Thomas, who is set to take the court Tuesday against Portland. Cleveland then faces a five-game road trip with the first stop coming against Thomas’ former team, the Celtics, a game he’ll sit out. Thomas averaged 28.9 points per game last season in Boston, the second-most in a season in Celtics history. — Vincent Johnson

The Rockets have lost five of their past six games, and now James Harden is out at least two weeks with a strained hamstring, but Chris Paul has proven more than capable of running the offense without Harden. This season with Harden off the court, Paul has a player efficiency rating of 37.1 (18.2 with Harden on the court) and has scored or assisted on 64 percent of the Rockets’ points. Houston has outscored opponents by 89 points in 196 minutes with Paul on and Harden off. — Vincent Johnson

The Spurs have eight double-digit losses this season, their most entering January in the past 20 seasons. That also matches their total from all of the previous season. But they’re still the Spurs, currently sitting third in the Western Conference as they continue to ease Kawhi Leonard back into his superstar form. — Vincent Johnson

After a scoreless first game with the Rockets, Green scored 18, 10, and 27 points in consecutive games. On Thursday facing Golden State, Green exploded for 29 points on 9-of-16 shooting. Houston signed Green and has mostly asked him to do one singular thing: shoot threes. He has hit 21 threes over the past four games, including 15 in the past two.

Look: Green won’t always do what he did on Thursday. In one instance, he banked in a step-back three-pointer. Green completed a four-point play in the corner, too. It has been unconscious shooting even as Green works his way back into game shape — remember, this dude wasn’t in the league two weeks ago.

On the other hand, no team makes more sense for Green. Houston shoots more threes than anyone else, and so does Green, a streaky-but-proven scorer who has averaged six or more three-point attempts per 36 minutes in each of his last five seasons.

The disappearance of the Jaguars’ defensive dominance and their composure last week against the 49ers needs to be proven to be an exception.

A win not only gives the Saints the NFC South, it gives them 12 wins in 14 games after an 0-2 start, one that seems a million years ago. This is also Alvin Kamara’s last bid for offensive rookie of the year and Marshon Lattimore’s last for defensive rookie of the year, which should mean GM Mickey Loomis should be making a bid for a raise. There are a lot of candidates for 2017’s most disappointing team, but the Buccaneers’ case is very strong.

The Jimmy G Factor is tangling up playoff scenarios, draft positioning and, yes, game-picking. After last week’s Jimmy Garoppolo-led spanking of the Jaguars and their top-rated defense, the Rams cannot rest easy. However, the 49ers’ defense will have to somehow wrestle into submission Todd Gurley, in his final run at building his MVP argument. His gaining 211 yards rushing and receiving is possible; if he does, he moves into the top 10 all-time for a single season.

A tune-up against a Titans team that has lots to play for, but is fading down the stretch, would help. Playoffs or not, the offseason should be devoted to fixing what went wrong with Marcus Mariota in his third season. With a berth at stake, DeMarco Murray’s availability with a sprained knee will be crucial.

Right from the jump, Thomas was ready to fire from distances we’ve become accustomed to watching him drain shots from. He took 12 shots (tied for second-most on the team) and eight of those were threes.

He seemed to know his role already, firing up a large portion of the shots when he was playing with the reserves, and using screens from Kevin Love and LeBron James to get clean looks with the starters. He was comfortable enough to pick up a technical foul just minutes into his return, arguing about a non-call.

Thomas was a distributor too, racking up three assists �� and a few hockey assists �� to two turnovers, already having a feel for where his teammates would be. He proved he has chemistry with Dwyane Wade already, and had a pair of unreal passes to the cutting shooting guard.

The Detroit Lions have fired head coach Jim Caldwell after four seasons with the franchise

Gurley is one of several Rams, including QB Jared Goff, who won’t play Sunday as the Rams (11-4) eye a a playoff game next Saturday or Sunday against an opponent to be determined Sunday.

The Rams are in that position, in no small part, because of Gurley, who has put his name in the conversation about the MVP award, which has been dominated by quarterbacks over the past decade (Vikings RB Adrian Peterson, in 2012, is the only non-quarterback to win the award in the past 10 years).

The investigation, which concluded Dec. 28, determined the allegations could not be substantiated, but, according to Heeke and Robbins, Arizona Athletics did become aware of information, both before and during the investigation, which caused it to be concerned with the direction and climate of the football program.

As a result, we have been reviewing the finding and deliberating our course of action. While this is a difficult decision, it is the right decision. And it is a decision that lives up to the core values of the University of Arizona.

He’s done a great job, Brady said. You go in there and get the opportunity to play and win games, that is what we are all here for. It was good to see and good for them to beat Jacksonville, that really helped us. I am really happy for Jimmy and he’s worked really hard. It shows up when he goes out there and plays really well.

The team made the announcement Monday morning. Lions general manager Bob Quinn praised Caldwell during his season-ending news conference, but said his goal is winning championships, and he felt Detroit needed a change in leadership, a new voice.

There’s not one thing, Quinn said Monday afternoon. Just when you look at our record over the last couple years since I’ve been here, we didn’t beat the really good teams. Our record was above average — 9-7 the last two years — but our record against the better teams in the league have not been that good.

Maccagnan was hired Jan. 13, 2015, and Bowles, in his third season, is the 16th head coach in franchise history. New York was 10-6 under Bowles in 2015, but slipped to 5-11 in 2016.

The Jets, putting a positive spin on this year’s 5-10 mark entering Sunday’s finale against the Patriots, noted in their news release that the team heads into the offseason with financial flexibility and three picks in the first two rounds of the 2018 NFL Draft.

On that night in the Big Easy, Alabama defense didn’t allow LSU to cross midfield until the closing minutes of a suffocating 21-0 victory. This defensive performance was nearly as impressive.

Clemson was held to 188 yards — 260 yards below its season average — and never reached the end zone. Bryant was sacked five times and the Tigers were held to 64 yards on the ground.

Alabama played it tough right to the end, denying Clemson on a fourth-down pass into the end zone with just over a minute remaining.

Clearly, the Tide was still ticked off about the way last season ended, giving up a TD pass with 1 second remaining to hand Clemson the national title.

This, Saban said, was a little bit personal for us.

In any reviewable matter, there has to be a whistle called on the floor, Stafford said. There was no whistle blown for the play, so we couldn’t review it.

Anthony was correct about the NBA review, as the two-minute report for the game noted the missed out-of-bounds call on Antetokounmpo. The report listed four missed non-calls in all, including a lane violation on Westbrook and two potential violations on Antetokounmpo on previous plays.

With 4.7 seconds left in Friday’s contest, Westbrook had tied the game on a 3-pointer, giving him 40 points on 16-of-34 shooting. The Bucks called timeout and set up a play for Antetokounmpo, who spun baseline on Josh Huestis and finished a dunk over Westbrook.